The work continues

With the build up to Christmas and our imminent return to the UK to see family and friends we haven't got as far as we had hoped.
Our intention was to start work on the second letting room and finish with the hallway and landing but we changed our minds and have been working the other way round.
The hallway is such a big job. This is where the floor was bad and has been dug up several times for soil pipes etc. Kim will remember this digging very well back in May. All electrics start from this point and the walls are in a poor state.

Stairwell plastered

We started by painting the ceiling over the stairs (what we are going to do with the ceiling in the actual hallway remains a mystery and will do until after Christmas now - we need to cover up cables). We continued by plaster boarding the wall at the side of the stairs where previously it was wooden tongue and groove but in a sorry state. Cracks have been filled and the overall effect after painting is much brighter.

Stairwell painted

Stairwell when we arrived Jan 2014

Phil knocked the old sink out in the hallway (was the old kitchen) and sadly it couldn't be saved. In fact it didn't want to break at all and when it did it clung on to the wall with grim determination. However it has finally gone. We plan on having a window seat in the alcove it has created. Also an opportunity for some extra storage.

Sink in pieces and where it used to be

The doorway from the hall to the second guest bedroom needed moving to the right. Here is a picture of the old and very short doorway going. Phil is so pleased. He has hit his head on it every day since we arrived. as you can see the new door is now in situ.

Bye bye to the head banging doorway

Hello new door to guest bedroom - slightly to the right

Whilst pulling up floorboards in the hall we discovered what I believed to be flagstones.
I got very excited and wanted to save them but Phil informs we they were just concrete stones and they had broken up beyond belief/ I still think it sad as they had obviously been around for a long time and it would have been nice to save them but I lost this battle.

Sad au revoir to some 'flag stones'?

Much of the hallway has been plasterboarded and plastered and the downstairs cloakroom is going in. The floor we discovered yesterday afternoon is too low and there isn't enough fall on the pipe so we had to raise the floor. Be aware visitors, there is now a step into the downstairs cloakroom.
We weren't sure if we would have room for this cloakroom but once the walls started going up it is a reasonable space - especially compared to some downstairs toilets so we think it will work well. It's an essential really as anyone visiting us won't have to either use the outside toilet or go through our bedroom to get to our en suite.

Plastered - you can see our double doors to kitchen in the background

A loo too low

Raising the floor

A heightened toilet experience

Meanwhile our friend Rob has been helping out as the window frame to our first guest bedroom was letting in water. it turns out the sill was completely rotten. Rob has replaced this and the entire frame. The sill measured 1.4m and was 12cm x 12cm square oak. We got this from a fantastic wood yard just outside Ruffec at Bernac for only €10.82!!

Sill and frame removed

We are so grateful to Rob. He worked up a ladder in  the road and it's not a low window. Phil and I aren't good with heights and Phil certainly mustn't work at heights after the events of this year. A great help to us Rob - many thanks. Rob is returning to the UK shortly for maybe a long time. He has become a great friend and we will miss him. Hopefully you will come back very soon.

New frame and shutters rehung

Last weekend we took the day out to visit a couple of Christmas markets.
the first in the old abbey at Nanteuil-en-Vallee and the second at La Rochefoucauld in cloisters near the beautiful chateau. Some piccies here.

Abbey at Nanteuil

Inside abbey at Nanteuil Xmas Market

Abbey grounds Nanteuil

Xmas Market - Abbey Nanteuil

Abbey grounds - Nanteuil

Chateau at La Rochefoucauld

Cloisters at La Rouchefoucauld

We also stopped at the memorial to the Resistance at Chasseneuil. Pretty impressive. It is on the N141 which is now named Route Claude Bonnier - also called the Chemin de Liberte - Freedom Way, a hero of the resistance during WW2 who after capture took his own life with a cyanide pill rather than give information under torture.

Monument to the Resistance - Chasseneuil

It's only a few days before we leave Villefagnan for the UK and Christmas so I hope to see some of you very soon.

xx